John Zorn's "The Last Supper"

January 23, 2009—The impressively prolific John Zorn has recently released his 22nd (!) volume of music for films, The Last Supper (Tzadik). It is scored for percussion and a small group of vocalists. That might not sound very exciting on the first blush of things, but this is no ordinary music. The vocals are in the wordless, post-Swingle Singer mode and much of what they sing is loosely in the hocket style, which some medieval composers and the Pygmies of the Congo region of Africa have in common. Hocket involves phrases where individuals or specific groups are responsible for particular notes in a phrase, in alternation back and forth. The results for this Zorn creation are repeating and varying lines where male and female vocalists work together to create mesmerizing and musically fascinating results. Zorn is no dogmatist so this technique is used but not overused. The percussion ensemble functions as a contrasting accompaniment to the vocals and also has spots where it takes over and provides layered rhythmic grooves that hypnotically reinforce a kind of primal quality that is apparently an important part of the film.

This music is not run-of-the-mill minimalism, new age tribal drum circle stuff, or anything else of the common run of musics that can be heard ad nauseum as backdrops for modern films or just as backdrops. Neither does the music sound like an afterthought to the film. It stands on its own as a very interesting and innovative musical space. I must say it’s one of my favorite things thus far this year and you should listen to it if you want to shake yourself out of the doldrums of everyday sameness.

Medeski, Martin & Wood Do Zorn's "Zaebos"

Originally posted on December 8, 2008

John Zorn’s music captures our attention again today on the CD Zaebos (Tzadik), which consists of music from his Masada cycle as performed by the versatile and talented keys-bass-drums trio of Medeski, Martin and Wood. This is music with a freely charged electric jolt. And there’s certainly a rock component to this Semitic tinged set. MMW puts in one of their best performances ever. A tightly melded fusion of the written music and the trio’s interpretation makes for an organic compound of sound and energy that grooves, digs deeply into the roots of the minor mode sound, soars with musical wings of fire, and rests momentarily on a musical thought before returning again to the driving momentum of the music. The injection of interesting melodic sound blocks, cliché-less riffs and harmonic frameworks combine for an exceptional package of invention.

There was an old NYC ad slogan when I was young. It was for a bread company and it went “You Don’t have to be Jewish to Like Levys.” Zorn and MMW’s appealing disk has that same attraction. Imagine an incredibly hip Emerson, Lake and Palmer playing with an assuredness you’ve never heard from them before. It’s beyond that by a wide margin, but it might give you some idea of the power of this music. Both Zorn and MMW have taken some of the tenets of progressive rock and applied them to a jazz and beyond perspective that doesn’t forget the immediacy of powerful driving waves of sound. That’s an achievement and disks like these truly should be recognized more widely for what they are and what they do. Listeners must abandon what they think they should be hearing and they will surely get more than they imagined. The boldest sound adventures can do that. Keeping warm in a COLD New Jersey. . .

John Zorn's Xaphan

Originally posted on November 20, 2008

John Zorn is a complex person, musically and perhaps in many other ways as well. He started out as an avant jazz alto sax player, known for his high intensity approach. He became interested in the idea of game music, pieces with various instructions and parameters for the players with open-ended results. Then he has flirted with death metal, the music of spaghetti westerns, spy and film noire cinema, and surf-psychedelia from the ‘60s, fusion, and most notably, an exploration of his Jewish heritage. All these facets of his music intersect from time to time, with the latter aspect framing most of his later work.

In a Tzadik release that has become available in the last couple of months, many of these influences and styles come together in a most interesting meld. Xaphan is music from his Masada project, arranged with particular skill by Trey Spruance for Secret Chiefs 3. It’s a fairly large ensemble and they run the gamut for nuances of style and combinations thereof. The mideastern sound is always present in one form or other, but it’s transformed in so many ways as clearly to form a new music of its own. I can’t recommend this disk strongly enough for those exploratory souls that are tired of the same old routine. This will shake you up and there is enough of a rock-fusion edge to it that those coming out of that bag will not feel like they are in completely unfamiliar territory. I can’t help wonder what the reaction to this music is in Israel and the mideast in general. Some certainly might express some surprise that American music can sound like this. Zorn is one of our masters. He should help tilt the balance of trade (albeit the musical trade) out there.

The Unknown Masada from John Zorn

Originally posted on April 28, 2008

There is something intriguing about John Zorn. His music combines all kinds of styles at any given time: Jewish, free improv, death metal, downtown, jazz, thrash, world, you name it. As his CDs on Tzadik attest, Zorn collates and reworks all kinds of amalgams in his own special way.

The Masada group concept has been his staple over the last decade and he always peoples it with strong players. To celebrate Masada’s tenth anniversary, Zorn has created a series of special CDs. One of them, The Unknown Masada, looks at some previously unrecorded Zorn pieces and has an ever shifting lineup of styles and densities. It is quite an experience to hear.